American Bred Episode 5: Teacher Doctor Scientist
by American Companion
Summary: The Doctor takes Katie to Atlantis, where the galaxies greatest minds come together. At first it seems like schoolbooks and blackboards, but one of the students is working on a project that may very well destroy Atlantis.
1. Chapter 1

The Doctor slammed the door behind him, sonicing the lock, hoping to buy them more time. A moment later a terrifying howling rose up from the other side of the door, followed by a ferocious clawing. Katie was desperately going through the shelves of the room, pulling books off them like mad. Giving up on that, she went through the drawers of the H.M.C's desk.

"There's nothing here of use! How are you supposed to get rid of those things?" Katie said, still searching.

"Drown it in a bog," the Doctor said, flipping through books.

"Well the last time that happened some brilliant genetics professor found its skull and made a new one," Katie snapped, shooting a dark look at said professor, who was cringing in a corner of the office. "What else is there?" Katie snapped her head up to look at the bewildered ball of light that hung in the office. "You! You have any weapons in here?"

The light shimmered as TARDIS translated in Katie's head. "No. I never had the need. I always called security."

Katie snorted. "Yeah, well, security is busy evacuating the rest of the people here."

The sound of splintering wood heralded the imminent entry of the beast. Katie took a split second to glance at the six inch claw sticking through the door then returned to the light.

"You got any back ways outa this place?"

"The sconce next to the book shelf."

The Doctor was closer, so he grasped the black sconce. He pulled and it moved a fraction, then it stopped. "It's stuck!"

The Doctor's words were punctuated by the center of the door bursting open, leaving the edges behind. The huge brown creature roared again, its teeth very visible as froth flew from its jaws. Katie grabbed the nearest thing; a small decorative glass ball that had been sitting on the desk.

"Doctor, get the door open!"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Several days previously<strong>_

_That's the fifth time in a row! What is she doing in there?_

The Doctor stood in the TARDIS' hallway, staring at the light flickering out from under Kathryn's bedroom door. For the past five nights, she had disappeared into her room after each separate adventure, and didn't come out until he let her know that they had landed again. She'd even been neglecting her plants. On top of that, one of his blue pin-stripe suits had disappeared on that first night, along with a shirt and tie and his coat. They were back in his closet now, with the coast fixed, but something was up, and he wanted to know what it was.

He stepped up and grasped the door-handle, preparing to turn it. He looked around in curiosity when a faint blaring sounded. Sounds of scrambling emerged from the other side of the door then Kathryn's head appeared around the doorframe. Her hair was mussed and her eyes were a bit too wide. The pulse in her neck was beating twice as fast as it usually did, despite her three hearts.

"Yo Docta! 'Sup?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. He had never heard Kathryn speak like that before. "What are you doing in there?"

"In where?"

He inclined his head. "In there. Your bedroom. Are you working on a secret project?"

Her laugh was a shade too bright. "What would I possibly be doing as a "secret project", Doctor? A new dress for myself, perhaps? You know how much I love wearing skirts."

The Doctor had to smile at her obvious sarcasm. They both knew perfectly well that Kathryn hated skirts above all else, except possibly badly brewed coffee first thing in the morning. "No, you just seemed to be staying up a bit later than usual."

"I didn't know you had an enforced curfew."

"Upon occasion. I'm just worried that whatever it is your spending your time on is draining you."

Kathryn seemed genuinely surprised. "You? Worried about me? Now I know you've been cruising the cosmos too long on your own. You get a friend and you snap. Besides, I make sure to get enough sleep. If I really need to up my energy levels, I'll have you pull over next to a red giant and I can bask in the light and heat, or have you jabber about something other than the mundane for once. You give me enough sound to power an office building!"

The Doctor decided to humor her. "Do I really?"

"You most certainly do, fly-boy. You talk even more than a girl I had the misfortune of meeting once. Janet Shnoff, her name was. I wouldn't have minded her constant talk so much except that when she talked, she couldn't do anything else, and we were on a science project together. I finally thought to get the point across by doing a test on how fast sound waves travel at different keys, but she took it as a compliment!" Katie paused for a moment, head tilted, remembering. She straightened and smiled widely at the Doctor. "Well then, since you're actually worried about my health, I'll turn in. Night!"

Without waiting for an answer, Kathryn closed the door. The light under it faded as she turned off the oil lamps she had started using instead of candles. The Doctor stood where he was, puzzled about her behavior, then filed it away in his mind with her other idiosyncrasies. If it was important, she would let him know. She always had before. Why not now?

He didn't look back as he walked off. If he had, he might have noticed the light under the door return.

Two days later, the Doctor stood in front of his closet door, counting. _Three suits. Odd. I only had two. One blue, one brown, and now one purple. Where did purple come from?_

Finally just pulling out the disruptive suit, he saw that a matching shirt and tie were already on the hanger with it. "Now that's really odd. Are you trying to play mind games again? It never works."

The TARDIS answered his question with a mental nudge.

"If you say so," the Doctor answered with a shrug.

Five minutes later, he was examining the way the suit fit in front of his mirror. It literally fit perfectly, and the pockets were bigger on the inside than the outside, which was precisely the way he needed them. Brushing it one last time, he heard something in the inside coat pocket give a faint crunch. Upon investigation, he found a letter addressed to him, written in Sanskrit, Kathryn's newest language learned.

**Dear Doctor,**

**After the adventure with Ace, I figured you needed a new one. Fixed your coat too.**

**If the suit fits and you like it, wear it. If it doesn't fit or you don't like it, chuck it into the nearest star and let it burn.**

**Signed your passenger,**

**Kathryn Moore**

**P.S.**

**If you ever mention this gift, or this letter, to me, or anyone else, I will leave you stranded on Earth in the 1500's, in the Spanish court, with a tattoo that identifies you as Protestant.**

The Doctor folded up the letter with mixed emotions. Partly pride, because he had had no idea Kathryn could sew so well, hadn't even imagined she would have learned how to sew, but there was also a touch of sadness. After all these weeks, Kathryn still had a survival bag packed in case he dropped her off on a planet and left her there. He wished she would see that the only way she could leave would be if she were to die or chose to walk out herself. Even then, he would probably do everything possible to have her stay. It was that weird link they had. He couldn't even let himself start to worry that Kathryn might leave or he felt himself running the risk of moving into a panic mode.

"Still wish I knew where that link comes from. Considering the race that grew her in the first place, you'd expect her to be trying to kill me. I wonder if I'm just that good of an influence."

The TARDIS flooded his mind with several emotions, each one mixed with sarcasm.

"Now that was just rude."

Katie sat in the kitchen, distractedly swinging her legs and tapping the table. Her coffee was growing cold her front of her, as was her breakfast. She was fretting that she had overstepped herself in in making him a suit to wear.

"I thought we would try Atlantis. What do you think?"

Only her supreme self-restraint kept her from jumping two feet in the air as the Doctor entered. He was grinning that amazing grin that would look stupid on anyone else, but fit perfectly on his face and with his hair. She felt a spark of pleasure as she noticed he was wearing the purple.

"You remembered to get the hot water going. I'm impressed."

Relaxing slightly, Katie returned his comment as she always did. "I figured you'd given me enough grief over it. Atlantis actually existed?"

"Yeah," the Doctor said, his voice getting just a bit high. He was picking through the multiple tea boxes for something specific. He held it up proudly as he found it. "Well, technically, we can't go to the original one. Cracks in time made the whole thing sink at every second of its existence at once so visiting would be a bit of a bother. I promise it was not my fault. Well, not entirely."

"I'm sure," Katie answered dryly. "Then tell me, O Great Time Lord, how we are to visit a place that is underwater?"

He smiled again. "We're going to Atlantis the planet."

Katie couldn't help but smile back. The Doctor's enthusiasm was catching, and she was terribly excited. Another day with another adventure. Life in TARDIS with the Doctor was, as he would say, brilliant.

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

"Your next flying lesson is landing, since you seem to have problems with that," the Doctor said as he danced around the console room, flipping a few switches here and there.

"I wrap her around a few plants—"

The Doctor cut Katie off. "Four plants and a person. The local authorities weren't so happy when you attempted to kidnap their mayor."

"I didn't kidnap him! I gave him back right away."

"Still looked like a kidnapping. Now, stand over here."

Katie instantly complied. The Doctor was slowly teaching her the fine art of flying TARDIS, and she absorbed everything. She also took more shortcuts and broke more rules than he did, but she could fly TARDIS decently well. Katie simply had problems landing the Type-40.

The Doctor pointed to several things, explaining what they were as he did so. "Now, I've already put in the exact co-ordinates for a place on the planet that won't have any trees and shouldn't have people, but this meter here will give you your proximity to objects."

"Will it tell me what the objects are?"

"No. I used to have—"

"She used to have."

The Doctor gave a small nod. Katie insisted TARDIS was alive even more than he did, and never spoke of her as a machine.

"She used to have one for that, but it broke. Well, actually I lost it."

"You lost it. Of course. I have a question. How have I not been dematerializing the stuff I land around?"

"Glad you asked." The Doctor pointed to a button that looked like a peppermint. "This is the anti-temporal molecule displacement button."

"It's the safety."

The Doctor gave her a look. "Yes. It's the safety. It sticks, and you keep pressing it before you land."

"Which is apparently a good thing, considering the stuff I've landed on. Anything else?"

"Just one last thing." He gestured to a thin, silver lever. "The place we are landing has extremely unstable ground. Some places are like that, full of swamps and things. When the mauve light next to this lever lights up, it means the ground is unstable. You pull the lever down, and the TARDIS will hover less than a tenth of a millimeter above the surface, thus keeping herself stable."

"What's it called?"

"The Envelope lever."

Katie raised an eyebrow. "The Envelope lever? Why the Envelope lever?"

The Doctor grasped the lever and pulled it out of the console. It looked like a silver knife. "You can open letters with it."

Katie made a noise of agreement. "Makes sense. You're certain the co-ordinates are locked?"

The Doctor nodded. "You need to start memorizing a few of them."

Katie gave her customary half-smile. "Now where's the fun in knowing where you're going?" She grasped a blue and yellow switch, flipped it, and they were off.

* * *

><p>Katie hauled herself up from her spot on the floor. Peering across the console at the Doctor, she tried to appear apologetic, though the twinkle in her green eyes gave her away.<p>

"Well, at least there's no tree or person."

The Doctor conceded the fact with a nod. "That's something, anyway. Ride was a bit rough."

"More like 'white vortex rafting', I'd say." Katie finished standing and dusted off her hands. "So, how about we take a peek at the planet?" Without waiting for an answer, Katie dashed for the door, her Gallifreian messenger pouch bouncing on her hip. She flung open the doors and stepped outside, instantly disappearing from the waist down. A large cloud of fine white powder billowed up around Katie as she grabbed for the door frame, keeping herself from going under.

"Chalk? We landed in a pile of…chalk?"

Katie could hear the smile in the Doctor's voice. "Chalk dust, actually."

"Why are we in chalk dust?"

"What else do you expect from a university?"

Katie looked out from her position. TARDIS was on the top of an enormous pile—no, mountain, of chalk dust. Farther down the mountain, buildings stood erect.

"Kathryn Moore, welcome to Atlantis."

Katie stared in awe at the buildings, the architecture ranging from everywhere and when. She could see a Roman Coliseum, the Temple of Athena, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a Cathedral, the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Twin Towers. Every great wonder that had ever existed since man started to build seemed to be there. At the center of all this majesty, there was a collection of buildings, built gothic style.

"This is a university?" Katie breathed, taken aback by it all.

"Yep. All the extra buildings were either recreated or moved here. Atlantis is the very center of knowledge. To even be part of the general staff, you have to have a masters in something. No one here ever applies, whether to teach or attend. You get asked. To teach here now, you have to have graduated from here. To attend as a student, you must have a minimum of three degrees, not including the one you get from the first four years of college."

"If everyone's a professor, what do they call teachers?"

"Masters at Craft, or M. C. for short. You can't just come when you're smart, or even brilliant. You have to be a complete genius. I come when I feel lonely."

Katie took a deep breath and remembered the chalk. "If their all so smart, why do they still use chalk?"

"The blackboard is reminiscent of the first school days. Adds a scholarly air to the whole place. This is where they take the powder after cleaning erasers."

Katie smiled, getting a sudden adrenaline rush. "Well let's go! Help me back up."

She could hear the jest in the Doctor's voice. "No, I just swept. I think I'll let you find your own way down."

"Why you—!"

Katie let go of TARDIS as the doors closed. She never heard the engines give their signature sound, because she started rolling down the side of the chalk mountain, the soft powder puffing up around her, coating her in white.

* * *

><p>Katie stopped rolling surprisingly soon. The mountain was either a lot smaller than she had thought, or she just moved fast. She didn't want to ask which.<p>

Katie crawled off the base, coughing up dust and blinking it from her eyes. She could feel it in every crevice of her body, and filling her pockets. Pulling a canteen from her bag, which was in the same shape she was, she sloshed the water over her eyes, clearing them. She had rinsed out her mouth and taken a drink before she noticed a man standing nearby. He was rather attractive, with sandy blond hair and green eyes, though she guessed his age to be about 40. He was giving her the most curious look.

"Kathryn Moore, Chalk Inspector," Katie said, telling the first story that came to her head. "Did you know that a school this size is required to have a grade of at least A-2? This dust is at best A-6. I'll have to fine you for it."

His eyes widened and he took a step back.

"I wouldn't know anything about that. I'm just a professor. You'd have to ask one of the M.C.'s about something like that."

Katie smiled. "Chill buddy! I'm messing with ya. I'm not an inspector of anything. For all I know, this chalk is Grade C-4. I don't even know if chalk has grades." She stuck out a very dusty hand. "My name's Kathryn Moore."

The man hesitated then shook her hand back. It was very quick, and he immediately rubbed it off on his pants. "Robert Whiting. If you aren't an inspector, why are you here?"

"Visitor."

Whiting smiled knowingly. "Ah, one of the few to see their goal for themselves, instead of taking it on the word of others. Good, that's the sign of a scholar. Tell me Ms. Moore, how far in school have you progressed already?"

Katie shrugged. "Just high school so far, but I've been studying on my own since then. Trips to places mostly, some book stuff."

"Good, that's another indicator. What's your focus?"

Katie smiled lightly. "Language as a central focus. A little history. Some stuff with computers. I've dabbled in the study of space-time. What about you?"

"Three degrees in Genetics, one in Chemistry. At the moment I'm studying a varying array of subjects, as are other First Years. All the professors here are absorbed in competition, but especially First Years. Only the top ten in each class have a chance to continue on to one of the focused campuses."

"People must get desperate around here."

Whiting nodded. "It is difficult, but any sacrifice is worth it. An invitation to study here on Atlantis comes once in a lifetime, if ever." Whiting paused. "You said you were in the Temporal Arts. How were you able to secure a permit to study such a subject at eighteen?"

"I'm fifteen."

"Fifteen!" Whiting exclaimed. "You must have worked exceptionally hard to accomplish such a thing. Most are in their late twenties before they can even take the test."

"I didn't know you needed a permit."

Whiting gave Katie a suspicious look. "Ms. Moore, if you have no permit, how are you able to secure the necessary items to study the Temporal Arts?"

"Well, TARDIS gave me a book on how to run her, and then the Doctor threw out the book so he could teach me himself—"

"Excuse me, but did you say the Doctor?"

Katie nodded. "Yeah. Anyway, he's been teaching me, and we landed on this lump of chalk—"

"THE Doctor."

Katie looked quizzically at Whiting. "Why is that surprising? I'm sure a great deal of you have doctorates."

"Well yes, but…THE Doctor? As in the Man With the Blue Box."

Katie nodded slowly, speaking at the same rate. "Yes. As far as I know, there is only one Doctor, and he has a blue box called TARDIS."

Whiting's face was the picture of disbelief. "You've traveled with the Doctor? You've actually been in the TARDIS?" When Katie nodded again, Whiting's face spilt in an excited grin. He grasped Katie's hand as started pumping it up and down in a fervent handshake.

"Ms. Moore it is an honor to meet you. To think I've actually gotten the chance to shake the hand of someone who's been in that marvelous machine, a person who's traveled with the Doctor."

Katie yanked her hand away from Whiting. While before the chalk dust coating her had served as enough of a barrier so that she wouldn't extract the energy straight from Whiting's body into her own, the coating was coming off. She had felt the energy transfer start, and couldn't risk draining him of his life energy.

Whiting started to apologize, thinking he had somehow offended her, but Katie waved her hand and made up an excuse. "No, it's alright. Just that the last thing to shake my hand tried to eat it. So, how do you know about the Doctor?"

Whiting's eyes widened. "He's the Doctor! Everyone on Atlantis knows who he is! He's is the biggest thing since Quantum Physics were disproved! He's the only man—"

"Disproven," Katie cut in, correcting the excited man's grammar.

"To ever complete seven degrees in the same year, and then turn down the position of Head Master of Craft! He founded the Temporal Arts here on Atlantis, was the first student to ever teach here, he's created elements, and provided science with accurate drawings and descriptions of species long gone. There's an entire building dedicated to him, and the Temporal Focus Campus in the Northern Hemisphere was created to honor him!"

Katie rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. "As if his ego wasn't big enough," she muttered to herself. "Now we've gone to a place where they bloody worship him." She looked at the excited Whiting, who was now staring at her with a mixture of respect and awe. "What?" she asked shortly.

"I'm still working on absorbing the fact you've actually traveled with him. Only the select few get the chance. How in the galaxy were you able to qualify? Could you teach me?"

"I have a question first. Since he's obviously been here before—something I will _definitely_ talk to him about—were would he have parked TARDIS?"

"Temporal Arts. He's got a parking spot there."

"Take me there and I'll tell you the story."

"Done."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Katie and Whiting arrived at the Temporal Arts building to find a crowd had already gathered.

_I'm going to pull that impossible man back into TARDIS by the ears. Probably needed an ego boost since I refuse to feed it._

Though she knew precisely what was going on, Katie walked up to someone on the edges of the group and tapped their shoulder.

"What's going on here?"

"It's the Doctor," the woman excitedly said. "He's back!" The woman peered at Katie. "Who are you? You're far too young to be here."

"Me?" Katie said, pointing to herself. "Oh, nothing really. I just travel around with this guy I met. He's got a blue box, one I would love to get to right now. I need to change my socks."

The woman's eyes widened. "Are you one of the Temporal Elite?"

"Is that what you call us? I always thought I was more of a bodyguard. You wouldn't believe the trouble that man gets us into." Katie pointed in the direction of TARDIS, whose top she could just make out over the crowd. "Would you mind letting me through?"

The woman immediately stepped aside. Katie heard the whispers start circling as people moved for her to pass through. It set her on edge, having so many people looking at her and talking about her, but she endured it. For now. Even if she had to drag the Doctor back into TARDIS, their stay would be a very, very short one. Maybe they could come back 700 years ago or something.

Katie stopped in front of the Doctor, arms crossed.

"Care to explain?" she asked, using a language from a very old society from a planet that had died before earth had even reached the Middle Ages. She doubted that any of the surrounding professors would know it.

"They seem to have turned me into a bit of a celebrity," the Doctor said, responding in the same language.

"Oh, it's much more than that, fly-boy. One would think you're responsible for keeping this planet in orbit."

"Well…"

"Don't even start. If I end up being gawked at or asked for an autograph while I'm here, I promise you I'll leave Floyd in the console room."

"Don't you dare put that carnivorous plant anywhere other than your quarters."

"I promise I will. And what was the deal with shoving me down the hill?"

"I knew you'd be fine," the Doctor said, that grin of his starting to show.

"I still have chalk dust in my boots. Do you know what my official title is? Temporal Elite. They seem to think people go through a series of tests to travel with you."

"You do."

Katie glared at him. "We'll talk about it later. Why exactly did you come?"

"At first, it was going to be for the purpose of talking with others that had a similar I.Q., but now I think it's to find the H.M.C. and see how he's doing. We'll leave soon."

"Right." Katie uncrossed her arms in a slightly hopeless manner. "Well, lead the way."

* * *

><p>It took some time to get through the masses. The professors must have been given the rest of the day off, because they were constantly coming up to them, asking question, usually along the lines of, "How did you become one of the Temporal Elite?" "What are the physics behind the internal and external size of the TARDIS?" "How does your temporal engine work?" and "Does history match up with the books?"<p>

Katie and the Doctor did their best to fend off the people as they made what should have been a short walk to the Head Master of Craft's—H.M.C.'s—office.

It was a large office, but surprisingly earth-based in its design. It looked like any other office at a university would; large wooden desk, heavy wood door, leather chair for the teacher, smaller cloth ones for visitors, one wall lined with books, a few decorative things on the desk along with papers and pencils. Some kind of gravity defying blue lamp was floating near the desk. The one thing that set Katie off balance were the degrees hanging on the wall. She had expected a few degrees, but there were so many that they left no room for any sort of decorative picture. She could have wallpapered half her room on TARDIS with them.

"Ybardolaza! It's good to see you again!"

Katie looked curiously at the Doctor. The blue lamp had floated over closer to the Doctor. Katie blinked, hiding her surprise when the lamp shimmered, producing a rippling sound that made Katie think of liquid light. TARDIS had to translate.

"It is good to see you as well, Teacher. It has been a while since the day we last met."

"Can't have been that long. Your light is still going."

Katie could have sworn the light laughed, a very musical, gentle laugh. "My kind lives for many, many years Teacher. I have but 467 years."

The Doctor looked puzzled. "But that would mean it's been…nearly 250 years since I last dropped by."

Katie got the feeling that the light nodded. "Plenty of time for the planet to pass stories of you down through years of students and turn you into a legend."

"You noticed?"

The light laughed again. "It would have been difficult not to."

The Doctor seemed to have remembered Katie. He gestured towards her in introduction. "Ybardolaza, this is my friend Kathryn. She's my current traveling companion. Kathryn, this is Ybardolaza. He runs Atlantis from here."

"Pleased to meet you. Just call me Katie. I hope this doesn't seem rude, but what are you?"

"It is not surprising that you should ask. As a rule, my species keep to themselves. I am an Agarrat. We are small creatures, with bodies that are easily damaged. Thus, the light we produce with chemical reactions serves several purposes. We appear larger and it makes it far easier to see what we do. The light is also acidic, and will burn anyone that touches it."

Katie stuck her tongue in her cheek, absorbing the information. "Huh. So you aren't some kind of energy being?"

"Only in the strictest sense. We use the energy released from the chemicals to create our shield."

Katie nodded. "I understand." Katie glanced at the Doctor before asking her next question. "Do you mind telling me where the library is? If it's alright, I'd like to go poke around while the two of you catch up."

"It is three buildings over," Ybardolaza shimmered.

"Thanks. Doctor, did you by any chance leave TARDIS unlocked? I feel like I should get into something a bit more formal than a t-shirt."

"There's a key behind the 'P' in the word police. Put it back when you're done."

"Thanks. Catch you later." Katie walked out of the office, closing the door behind her.

* * *

><p>After somehow managing to return to TARDIS, Katie washed and changed, then set out for the library. She figured it would be interesting enough to pass the time, as long as people didn't bother her too very often.<p>

She had just found a book titled 'Universal Codes: Common Languages Throughout Time,' and a corner to read it in when a voice broke through her musings.

"Miss Moore?"

Suppressing a groan she looked up at Whiting. "Yes?"

"If I may…"

"Sure, have a seat. My guess is you want to know how I ended up traveling with the Doctor, right?"

"Yes." He said it as though ashamed to be asking.

Katie sighed. "Yeah, not so shocked. Everyone's been asking that. It's nothing big."

"Oh, but it is. You may not completely understand, but the Doctor is a bit of a celebrity here on Atlantis. When we first hear of him, we think of the places we could go, the things we could talk over with him. No one here is called by the title 'doctor', though many of us should use it. The Doctor is a man we all strive to be, the person we all wish to travel with, to explore the galaxy next to. There are so many things he could teach us. And you have that chance." Whiting looked at Katie, who was now feeling almost chastened. She was along for the adventures and the companionship; these students, despite their age, wanted it for far better reasons.

"How are you able to get the chance to travel with him?"

"You don't sit down for a test, or go through a training program for it. It's not something you work for. I didn't even know he existed until a few months ago."

"Then how did you come to travel with him?"

"I got zapped from my home, appeared in TARDIS, discovered that I had been a clone plant and decided to accept the Doctor's offer of travel."

"I always thought one had to be exceptionally brilliant to get the position."

"It's not a position."

Whiting looked curiously at Katie. For a moment, she had trouble believing he was 40 years old.

"Please explain. If you don't work for it, and it's not a formal position, why are you with him?" Whiting sounded faintly accusing, as though he thought Katie didn't deserve her place on TARDIS. She was starting to doubt it herself.

"I saved his life, and I had nowhere to go."

"Wouldn't one trip have repaid the debt you had created?"

"Yes."

"Then why does he keep you?"

Katie stood up, abruptly ending the conversation. "If you will excuse me." She walked off, her boots making a clicking noise on the stone floor.

* * *

><p>"Oh, Kathryn I'm glad it's you. Take a look at this."<p>

Katie walked in to Ybardolaza's office, the door swinging shut behind her. If the Doctor noticed her subdued manner he didn't let on. In his hands was the oddest—no, weirdest skull Katie had ever seen in her life.

"What is that?"

"This Kathryn," the Doctor said, holding it out proudly, "is a Hak skull, in perfect condition."

"What's a Hak?"

"Here." He handed her the skull. She took it without hesitation. "You tell me."

Katie studied the skull for a few moments. "Well, the cranium and eye sockets remind me of a gorilla, but it's got a dorsal ridge from the forehead to the base of the skull, making me think it wasn't an ape. Nasal passage is elongated just a touch, though not much. The teeth are the most interesting note. The canines look like those from a walrus, and it's got double rows of teeth on both the top and bottom mandibles. Definitely a meat eater."

Katie wrinkled her forehead, perplexed. "Ape meets walrus?"

"Close." The Doctor's tone had shifted to the one he used whenever he seemed to be intent on instructing her in something. "Mostly it was a gorilla like creature. The dorsal fin was covered in heat sensors, the same way a snake uses its tongue. Had to have one, because their eyes were so sensitive to light they couldn't have them open in the daylight. Also, they had these enormous ears—think elephant, but flat against the skull."

"Seems like a good description," Katie said, breaking the Doctor's flow. "So why would it be so amazing to find skull in good condition?"

Ybardolaza shimmered from his place by the desk. "They have been extinct for nearly 20,000 years. All other remains have either been crushed beyond use or fossilized. However, this skull was discovered in a bog, with several pieces of the Hak's flesh still clinging to the skull. It was a remarkable find, and the flesh has been placed in storage until further studies are made."

"If they went the way of the dodo, how do you know what they look like?" Katie asked.

"Time machine," the Doctor said, taking the skull back from Katie. "And dodo's aren't gone any longer. They were brought back using DNA samples we were able to recover. Found in a bog again. Extremely difficult procedure, but I managed."

"You brought back the most idiotic bird that's ever existed? What use would you have for it?"

"Not much, though it was a brilliant break-through at the time." The Doctor gently set the skull down on Ybardolaza's desk. "Of course, I used genetic samples of living bird species to help bring back the dodo. The Hak will be a completely different story."

"You can bring back extinct races? Seriously?"

The Doctor grinned. "Seriously. Doesn't work quite like the _Jurassic Park_ books. The blood in the mosquito would be damaged after so long a time, but the basis is sound."

Katie looked at the skull with renewed interest. "How long do you think it would take to bring back a species so very dead?"

"Oh, it could take years. Unless the scientist was exceptionally brilliant."

"What about changing the DNA structure of a living organisim?"

"Childs play."

Katie shook her head, poking fun at the Doctor. "One of these days, something really big is going to happen and your ego is finally going to be taken down a few notches. You really do need it."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor and Katie spent several more hours on Atlantis. Katie left once more, this time to wander around the Temporal Arts building. She had sat in on a class on the mathematics behind time travel, but when she was invited to speak, she declined. Katie didn't really understand it herself. She did a bit, but it was so much easier to comprehend when she was trying to help fix the engines.

While in the Temporal Arts building, she walked down the hall that had been turned into a mini museum dedicated to the Doctor. Most of it made her laugh, but one section had puzzled her; several pictures were lined up, each one labeled "The Doctor." They had numbers under them, but several were missing. Katie made a mental note to ask the Doctor about it.

Now though, they were together, ready to head back into space. As much as Katie could see the Doctor would love to stay and lecture, or attend classes, or basically just play genius, Katie wanted—needed to leave. Word had spread that you didn't have to work to become one of the "Temporal Elite," that it was just luck of the draw. Katie could feel the multiple eyes of the students. They made her wonder if there wasn't some way she could earn her place in TARDIS, rather than just being a hard luck case. A dangerous hard luck case. Maybe if she wasn't so deadly?

"Doctor, what do you think causes me to drain energy from people?"

"Well, it's the way you were built, I suppose. The Rahki were probably trying something new when your number came up."

"Do you think it would be possible for me to not drain energy from people?"

The Doctor paused for a moment, thinking. "I suppose so," he said. "There's probably a sequence somewhere in your genetic structure that enhances the natural ability to draw energy from your surroundings. If it were removed, you'd stop."

"Then it's theoretically possible for a pack of geneticists to take a sample of my blood and figure out what that sequence was, and then remove it from the rest of my blood?"

The Doctor looked at Katie with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity. "What are you driving at?"

"Doctor, I'm tired of being a walking bug zapper." Katie's voice rose, a hint of desperation creeping in. "Everything and everyone I touch loses its life energy. Just giving someone a high-five is enough to make their arm go numb, and depending on the length of a handshake I can send someone unconscious for several hours. Anything over three seconds and they're in danger of going into a coma." Katie's voice lowered. "For whatever reason, you're the only person immune to my energy draining affect. Except for you, I can't touch anyone for fear of killing them. I don't want to live like that."

The Doctor studied Katie for a few moments, trying to figure out why she was suddenly so interested in taking away one of the things he thought she prized most about her new life. Maybe she was simply good at covering her real feelings about her ability.

"You'd also be without that energy view of yours."

"I wouldn't mind," Katie replied, almost too quickly. "It's a pain when you're trying to sleep and you see everything around you still lit up like a Christmas tree."

"Well, I suppose we could ask. Might get us some answers in the long run."

The Doctor could see the relief showing through Katie's grin.

* * *

><p>The walk to the Genetics Laboratory was much the same as their first walk to Ybardolaza's office. The difference was in the things the students said. Katie didn't know if the Doctor noticed; in fact, she would have bet good money that he didn't, but envy and hostility come out in daggers from the student's eyes. The questions were now for explanations or assistance on projects, all carefully worded to highlight the things they could do, or what they knew. Katie had never felt stupid or small before. It wasn't an experience she wanted to repeat.<p>

Finally, she couldn't stand hearing the 40 year old geniuses any more. "Doctor, I'm going to move on ahead. I'll meet you there." She left before the Doctor could protest.

He watched her for a moment before another student "accidentally" came across him. He puzzled over Katie's actions in the back of his mind, showing nothing on the surface. He had brought her to Atlantis in the anticipation that she would enjoy mingling with people with her level of intelligence. Katie was smart, clever; the Doctor thought she would fit in. Instead she seemed to be folding into herself, drawing away from the world. Almost as though she was scared of something.

He wondered what could scare her enough that she couldn't tell him.

* * *

><p>Katie found the Genetics Laboratory easily enough. No one talked to her; most ignored her. It reminded her of her four years at high school. She could have done it in two years, but she had forced herself to slow down in the hopes it would make her seem like less of a threat to others in the school. It hadn't worked very well.<p>

_I wonder if I should ask to have my brainiac gene removed too. No, heightened. I'm traveling with the Doctor now; need to be able to keep up. I don't think he'd leave me anywhere anyway. Pretty sure. Mostly._

Katie opened the door to the Genetics Laboratory and turned on the light. It looked pretty much the way she had expected it to, with tubes, petri dishes, bottles, beakers, syringes, and microscopes all over. Areas for germinating things had electronic pads attached to the doors with instructions and charts. The whole place had a smell that bears no description except laboratory. Everything was sterile, shining, mysterious, and just a little frightening. Katie felt oddly at home there.

Shaking off the feeling, she wandered about, reading things here and there, smelling a few chemical concoctions, and keeping an eye out anything that might help her achieve her shaky goal.

After finding several books and reading sections on identifying sections of DNA, she prepared a microscope and slide then cut her finger, quickly putting a drop of blood on the slide before the cut healed. The dark purple smear still made her marvel; purple blood was weird, even if it was her own.

Katie worked for several hours, returning to the books every few minutes to check herself. She kept getting lost in all the big words, and her DNA structure blurred when she looked at it. She was puzzled; science wasn't hard for her, and her eyesight was perfect.

Maybe it wasn't so bad she couldn't figure anything out. Katie wasn't sure she really wanted to lose her energy absorption. All the things she had said to the Doctor were completely true, but it was also a wonderful thing. She never got tired, and never had to risk her head or anyone else's by looking over something in search of people trying to kill them. She could just close her eyes and see everything with a complete 360 degree view from any angle she chose. It was also helpful when she wanted someone to let go of her. They would release her immediately, and as long as she was quick, she could disable a person without doing any real harm.

But who knew what the Rahki's actual intentions had been when they gave her that gift? What if it was something horrible? Did she really want that hanging over her head?

Katie clasped the pouch around her neck. In it was a transporter that looked like just a black, oval-shaped rock, but it was the thing that had taken her to the Doctor in the first place. It ran on DNA and her stored energy. The transporter had most likely originally been made as a way for the Rahki to take her back. As much as she wanted to be rid of it, she couldn't make herself throw it out. She couldn't even take it off without hyperventilating in panic.

Pulling the transporter out of its pouch, she ran her thumb over its smooth surface. The Doctor had said it was burnt out, but what if it wasn't? What if one day it suddenly came back to life, and took her away from the Doctor, back to the Rahki for processing? What if she lost her memories and character, only to have them put on display for anyone to see? What if one day she was no long Kathryn Trouble Moore the time traveler, or the mistrusting friendless Kavrin, or the human named—

"There you are!"

Katie started and spun around, smoothly replacing the transporter and tucking it under her shirt. She gave the Doctor a look, her face betraying nothing of her musings. "Took you awhile, Time Man. Did you take the scenic route?"

"Well, the walk was nice. Sunny day, friendly people. Lot of interesting questions. You should have stayed; you could have come up with a few answers."

Katie's smile was a touch self-depreciating. "Oh, I doubt that. I'm not quite as book-learned as you are. Working on it though. I'm up to…fourteen languages now, counting American English. I still don't really think it's a language though. It's more like a scrap-book of sounds, played on an eight track or something."

The Doctor smiled in agreement and looked at what Kathryn was doing. "So, what have you got?"

A door on the other end of the laboratory started rattling. Katie pointed in its direction without looking at it.

"Nothing to do with that."

Katie and the Doctor walked over to the door. It was completely made of metal, with no window. On it, a small plaque read "LIVING TESTS."

"Living tests?" Katie asked. "Is that where they keep the critters they're working on?"

"Only the more dangerous ones," the Doctor answered. He nodded towards a nearby table. "Hand me that pad."

Katie wordlessly gave it to him. Turning the sonic on it, he set the pad against the still shaking door. The vibrations had increased.

The Doctor and Katie peered at the pad. The Doctor had turned it into a crude x-ray. Through it, a hallway was visible. Far off down the hall, something large was pelting towards them.

"What is that?" Katie questioned.

"I don't know. Moving pretty fast though."

"Certainly on a mission. You think it'll break through the door?"

"Nah, this door is solid as can be." The Doctor thumped the trembling door, as if to prove how strong it was. The vibrations were coming through the floor as well, causing nearby beakers to rattle. "It's made to withstand whatever may be thrown at it."

"Uh-huh." Katie tilted her head. "What about the wall?"

They glanced at each other and threw themselves away from the door as the wall around its frame shattered. The door was perfectly intact, but a huge hole remained where it used to stand.

Katie and the Doctor sat up, coughing and waving away the dust. Katie looked at the thing laying in front of her on the floor.

"Saber-toothed bear?"

"No." Katie could hear the disbelief in the Doctor's voice.

"It's a Hak."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

"A Hak?" Katie asked, skeptical yet trusting. "You said they were exinct."

"They are. Were. Should be." The Doctor was carefully walking towards the Hak, which was lying dazed on the floor.

"Then what's it doing here?"

"A very good question."

Katie studied the beast as the Doctor crouched down near its head. The Hak had thick brown fur all over its body, except for on the odd black dorsal fin on its head. The fin seemed to be made of cartilage. Its feet were padded with big heavy claws, and it seemed to be able to run on all fours, and its ears appeared to be 14 in. in diameter. The whole beast was maybe ten feet long, and even flat on its stomach had a noble air about it. Katie crouched down across from the Doctor.

"You did say it was possible to bring back extinct species."

"Well yes but this… Something like this takes a genius."

Katie grinned. "And aren't you ticked it wasn't you?"

The Doctor tilted his head. "Well…"

Katie smirked and looked at the Hak's face, her expression turning puzzled. "Doctor, this face doesn't look much like the skull."

The Doctor joined Katie. The Hak watched them warily, but didn't move. "You're right. Very bear-like, not much resemblance to an ape left. Still has the walrus canines.

"And look," the Doctor continued, carefully pointing at the eyes. "They're open. If this was a pure Hak, it would have its eyes tightly shut in light this bright."

"Could the geneticist have combined Hak DNA with that of a bear?" hypothesized Katie.

"It's very possible. The DNA structure is similar enough."

The sound of shoes slapping on a floor reached their ears, along with a voice. The Hak's eyes widened in fear, and it stood up faster than Katie would have thought its great size allowed. Shoving Katie and the Doctor aside, it barreled through the laboratory, glass shattering behind it. It charged out the door Katie and the Doctor had come in, which was still open.

"Where is it?"

The Doctor and Katie turned to the voices owner.

"Whiting? You're responsible for this?" Katie asked, gesturing at the wrecked lab.

Whiting drew himself up, obviously rather proud. "I am. I have almost succeeded in bringing back the Hak race. I just need to catch Bob so that I can continue."

"Bob."

Whiting looked down his nose at Katie. "Yes, Bob. I named him after myself."

"Stupid name for a glorious creature like that."

"You named a beautiful flower Floyd," the Doctor reminded her. She raised an eyebrow.

"The name Floyd has personality. Bob is just Bob. So, Bob, how did you manage to unleash a beast from years ago?"

"Not that you would understand any of the science, child, but there is such a thing as cloning, and gene splicing. I'm sure you only know of it from archaic novels, but it can actually be done."

"Hey, I still remember when Dolly the Sheep was the biggest thing," Katie said. "After all, that's when I was living. So respect your elders and explain why you were hiding this."

Whiting glanced away from Katie, looking to the Doctor and then away from him as well. "I wasn't hiding this. Bringing back an extinct race is a tremendous feet. You can't hide it."

Katie smirked, but the Doctor spoke first. "You can't have told anyone, because something like this is spoken of everywhere. I would have known by now."

The Doctor had a small light bulb come on. "I see. You would be the only geneticist on the project. Your name in the history books all by itself."

"That isn't important at the moment," Whiting said, slightly flustered. "We need to retrieve the Hak hybrid before it does too much damage."

"How did he get out in the first place?" Katie asked, genuinely curious.

"I was taking some blood samples and it broke through its restraints."

Katie gave Whiting a half-lidded stare. "If you plan to work with a creature like that, you should at least address him as something other than 'it'"

"It's my creation; I shall call it whatever I wish."

"You must have stolen the pieces of flesh though."

Whiting turned a tad pale at the Doctor's comment. Katie knew why; something as big as reviving a species was taken seriously and the few flesh samples wouldn't have just been handed over on a whim. Whiting must have stolen them.

_Ha, now see what sort of impression you make on your hero._

Instead of speaking this thought out loud, Katie sighed and turned towards the door. "Come on Bob. Let's go find Edward and bring him back in."

"Edward?" Whiting said indignantly. "My name is not Edward!"

"No, but it is Bob," Katie said, turning into the corridor, her voice drifting back. "And Edward is a better name for a hybrid!"

"How would she know?" Whiting grumbled to the Doctor as they started following Katie.

"Oh, Kathryn knows a lot of things. You'd be surprised. You catch up with her. I'm going to go issue a general announcement that there's a mad beast on the loose."

"You can't! I mean," Whiting flushed, trying to find an excuse. "Why panic everyone?"

The Doctor looked at Whiting with a clear, direct gaze. "You sound much younger than your years. You should be perfectly ready to accept the mistake. Let's go."

* * *

><p>Trailing the Hak-hybrid was rather easy. All Katie had to do was follow the trail of destruction. When she heard the Doctor's voice over the school loudspeaker, she knew it was too late. Everyone had to know by now. Doors were missing, walls had holes, equipment was wreaked, and people had bite marks. The students with medical doctorates were helping the injured people. Katie paused next to one with a particularly nasty welt on his leg.<p>

"Got to you too, huh? Looks infected."

He glanced up at her, but when he saw who it was her returned to trying to drain the wound. "I'll be fine. Just make sure it doesn't eat anybody else."

"Why, has he eaten someone?"

The man paused for a moment. "Actually, I don't believe it has. It was simply dashing about, stumbling as though it couldn't see very well, and biting any person that came near it."

"Frothing at the mouth too?"

The man thought for a moment, and nodded slowly. "Yes. Yes, I do believe it was."

Katie sighed. "Joy. A rabid hybrid with enough power to go through walls. Just what I needed." Glancing at the bite again, she grimaced. Reaching into her bag, she searched for a moment and pulled out a small vial with an eyedropper.

"Open."

The man gave her an odd look. "Just what are you planning to do?"

"Look," Katie said, a slight southern accent permeating her speech. "I don't have time for you to complain that I didn't go through 40 years of school and earn 56 degrees before hitching a ride with the Doctor. If you'd rather end up dead from infection, that's not my problem. You don't want help, then you don't want it. But I ain't about to look the Doctor in the eye and say somebody died on my watch, so I'll force this down your throat if you won't take it peacefully."

The man grudgingly stuck out his tongue and Katie put two drops on it, then a few on his leg. She handed him the bottle.

"You'll be moving in a few," she told him, her regular Californian accent returning. "Once you're up, start passing the bottle around." She stood up. "Whether or not you mind, I have a hybrid to catch."

Katie started off jogging, still following the wreckage. Whiting caught up with her soon, a bit out of breath.

"Slow down child."

"I shan't. I think Edward has rabies. We can't let him keep going the way he has."

"Rabies? Isn't that an ancient disease?"

Katie sighed and increased the pace slightly. "Not when your friend died. It was probably nice and fresh and new then. Somehow it survived, and it will spread again now that it's back, and all your mucking about with cells probably gave it a buff so I can't be sure what it will do. Hope you're happy."

Whiting fell silent, though Katie could feel the enmity radiating off him. He was probably too out of breath to do anything though. Katie was in good shape; she doubted a pack of scholars exercised much. She didn't really care. She wasn't going to slow down for Whiting.

A few minutes later, Katie re-found the Doctor, who was trailing the Hak as well, but from the other direction. She called to him.

"Hey Doctor! Any more bites in your direction?"

"Several. All festering. A few students were starting to see things."

"Lovely."

Katie and the Doctor stopped in front of each other, both ignoring the now heaving Whiting. "So, Edward's got rabies, or something like it. I've sent one student around with one of those medicines we got from the Energy Plant. You know, where there was an honest mutual agreement between the fluorescent flowers and a convent?"

"Well, that's something, but right now it isn't as big a worry. We need to find the Hak."

"I was following him."

The Doctor seemed puzzled. "That's what I was doing. I saw it go past. Fast creature, so I couldn't keep up, and its black fur made it difficult, but the mess seemed bad enough I thought I could follow."

Katie clicked her teeth together. "So if you followed him from one end, and I've been following this way, where did Edward go?"

A scream rang out form the building next to them. Katie and the Doctor looked up in time to see a silhouette of the Hak attacking someone through the third story window.

The Doctor was off and running in a moment, Katie right behind him. Whiting trailed along behind.

Katie and the Doctor took the stairs with practiced ease. Though neither said it, they were both having a marvelous time.

Once again, the wreckage led them on. They started passing more and more wounded before they came upon a horrifying sight.

Edward the Hak was standing over the body of a student, gorging himself. Blood was caked around his mouth, his paws stained with blood. Katie could hear bones cracking as the Hak jaw dropped absurdly low to close around his victims arm.

Whiting moaned quietly and fainted with a thud behind Katie and the Doctor. The sound brought Edward's head up. He growled, annoyed at being interrupted.

"Run!" The Doctor grabbed Katie's hand and they started to run before Katie pulled them to a stop.

"Whiting's back there!"

Katie and the Doctor turned back. "Grab him and start dragging!" Katie yelled at the Doctor. He did so as she shoved her hand into her bag and produced a glass vial with a long neck. It was filled with a red tinted liquid.

Edward was still by the body, performing what seemed to be a show of strength. Pushing himself up with his front legs, he stood almost straight up before landing hard on the ground again, causing the wood floor to crack. Edward roared in a challenge.

Katie broke the neck of the bottle on the stair railing as the Hak started charging towards her. After pulling the fire alarm, she back peddled, dashing the liquid everywhere hissing in pain as it burned her hands. The last few drops were thrown at the Hak's face before the vial was smashed against the ground.

The Hak roared in pain as the liquid burned its eyes and nose. Katie turned and ran, hearing the thumps as Edward stumbled about. She saw the Doctor pull Whiting into a doorway. His head appeared a millisecond later.

"Come on!"

Katie tried to stop, but the long rug on the floor was literally pulled out from under her. She fell forward, her bag coming off. She looked back to see the Hak clumsily running after her.

A hand wrapped around her upper arm and she was yanked aside. A door slammed behind her as she was pulled to her feet, the sound of a sonic running under the words.

"Kathryn, are you okay?"

"I'm fine Doctor, except for the fact by bag is on the other side of the door."

Katie barely took the time to notice she was in Ybardolaza's office before she started pulling books off shelves. Finding nothing, she started yanking open desk drawers.

"There's nothing here of use! How are you supposed to get rid of those things?" Katie said, still searching.

"Drown it in a bog," the Doctor said, flipping through books.

"Well the last time that happened some brilliant genetics professor found its skull and made a new one," Katie snapped, shooting a dark look at said professor, who was beginning to wake up. "What else is there?" Katie snapped her head up to look at Ybardolaza, who seemed very confused. "You! You have any weapons in here?"

The light shimmered as TARDIS translated in Katie's head. "No. I never had the need. I always called security."

Katie snorted. "Yeah, well, security is busy evacuating the rest of the people here. No fire, but a Hak is even worse."

The sound of splintering wood heralded the imminent entry of the beast. Katie took a split second to glance at the six inch claw sticking through the door then returned to the light.

"You got any back ways outa this place?"

"The sconce next to the book shelf."

The Doctor was closer, so he grasped the black sconce. He pulled and it moved a fraction, then it stopped. "It's stuck!"

The Doctor's words were punctuated by the center of the door bursting open, leaving the edges behind. The huge brown creature roared again, its teeth very visible as froth flew from its jaws. Katie grabbed the nearest thing; a small decorative glass ball that had been sitting on the desk.

"Doctor, get the door open!

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

A panel next to the bookshelf slid open with a harsh grating sound, revealing a staircase.

"Everyone in!" the Doctor yelled. Whiting was the first to scramble inside, followed by Ybardolaza. The Doctor turned to Katie, but she cut him off.

"Move it Doc. I'm right behind you."

"No."

Katie rolled her eyes and shoved him in to the passage. She pushed the sconce back to where it was supposed to be, shutting the door behind her friend. Not taking time to think about how she had just cut off her only way out, she turned back to face Edward.

The Hak roared again, jumping up in his show of strength. While the liquid Katie had thrown at him had burned his eyes and the fumes had thrown his sense of smell for a loop, he still recognized Katie. As he landed hard on the floor, the wood cracked, as did a water pipe under it. Water started to run all over the floor.

Katie had a sudden light bulb moment. Crouching down, she jumped up, flinging her arms over her head and yelling, hoping it was a convincing mimic. The Hak returned the challenge, jumping up once more. As he landed, the water pipe burst completely, spraying up straight into Edward's face. Katie threw the glass ball down hard on the ground next to the broken pipe. The glass broke, and a there was a small explosion as Katie jumped smartly back, turning her face away.

A moment later the only sound was that of gushing water.

Katie turned slowly, hissing sharply from a pain in her neck. Touching the spot gingerly, she found a shard of glass where her jugular vein was. Katie took a fraction of a second to puzzle over why she wasn't dead before catching sight of the Hak, who was lying on the floor. His eyes were bloody, and his face was cut.

She walked slowly up to him, waiting for him to move and bite at her. He didn't.

As Katie moved closer, she saw that shards of glass had gone straight into his eyes, piercing his brain. A quick death.

A frantic pounding on the office door brought Katie's head snapping up. She clenched her teeth to stop the cry of pain.

"Kathryn!"

Ah. The Doctor. She'd forgotten about him.

Carefully grabbing the glass in her neck, she jerked it out. Her body had healed around it already, causing a new would to open. Purple blood gushed down her neck for a moment before the wound closed again. Soon there wouldn't even be a scar. A benefit of her energy absorption.

The door opened, the Doctor the first one through it. Seeing him putting away the sonic, Katie could easily guess how he had reopened the door.

The Doctor took in the scene at a glance, but ignored it once he spotted the blood on Katie's neck. "What happened?"

"A scratch. I'll wash it off in a sec."

The Doctor studied her for a moment, noting the glass in her hand, and then hugged her. The worry and relief was evident in his voice. "Don't ever do that again."

Katie rested her head on the Doctor's shoulder for a long heartbeat, glad to feel safe and wanted for at least a couple ticks of the clock.

"You killed it! All my work, and you just killed it! How dare you!"

Katie let go of the Doctor to look at Whiting. Her green eyes snapped with anger, and her voice was like scalding water.

"How dare I? You stupid human, do you know what problems you've caused? You tampered with living flesh without authority and without checking for disease, or if you did you never bothered to remove it. Then, you messed with genetics and enhanced that disease, which is at the moment running amok on Atlantis and will continue to spread. IN order to accomplish so much work in so little time, you probably cut corners and took risks that you shouldn't have. On top of it all, when your experiment ran off, you did nothing to stop or catch him. And now that someone finally took action, you get mad?"

Katie took a deep breath. Whiting looked like he'd been slapped and didn't know what to do in retaliation. Katie turned back to the Doctor.

"Next time I want to go back for someone, don't let me."

Stooping down next to the water that was still coming from the pipe, she washed off her neck. The Doctor was looking over the Hak. Removing a bloody tooth, he wrapped it in a handkerchief.

"We need to examine this, see if it can help us with a cure."

"I need to see if my bag is still in the hall. Which is by now soaking wet from the sprinklers, but hey, my bag can take it. Needed a wash anyway. And of course the water would have taken care of the pepper juice by now."

Ybardolaza shimmered in question. "Pepper juice?"

Katie nodded. "Yeah. I had a bottle of Trinidad Scorpion Butch T. pepper juice in my bag. I dumped most of it on the carpet in hopes the fumes would send the Hak hybrid's sense of smell out of whack. I threw the rest into his face. Burned his eyes like nobody's business."

"You damaged my creation before completely destroying it? Do you have no respect for the work of a scientist?" Whiting stammered out as Katie walked past. Katie stuck a finger in his face.

"Don't push it. Ybardolaza, I don't mean to press, but where is the Veterinary Sciences corner of the campus? Actually, any building that could fight mutated rabies would be good."

The H.M.C. shimmered again, his liquid light voice calming Katie's frayed nerves. "I'll go on the loudspeaker and send the department heads to the conference room in the library."

"That's no good as of yet," the Doctor said. "I'll need to find one of the infected students and take a look first."

"Of course Teacher." The Doctor nodded in a farewell and slipped out the door. Katie turned to follow before Ybardolaza stopped her.

"Miss Moore, am I correct in assuming that you used the glass sphere I kept on my desk to dispatch the Hak?"

Katie looked a little abashed. "Sorry. I hope it wasn't too much of a keepsake."

"No, I was simply verifying the source of the loud bang that came from this room after we left you."

"Yeah, I meant to ask about that."

"The ball was filled with oil. The oil served the purpose of keeping the sodium it surrounded from burning the glass."

"Oh. Wow. No wonder it worked so well." Katie looked at the dead Hak again and clicked her teeth together. Something bothered her about it, beyond the fact that there was an epidemic she had to solve. She glanced at Whiting. For all the irritation he had recently expressed, he didn't seem incredibly bothered about the death of Edward.

"Bob, do you have a back-up copy of Edward's DNA?"

"No, I did not."

"Don't get snappy. Did you happen to make a second Hak?"

Whiting flushed with anger. "I don't 'happen' to do things. People who travel with the Doctor because they were lucky 'happen' to do things. I am a scientist, I do everything—_everything_—with precisely measured steps to reach a goal."

Katie closed her eyes and took a calming breath. "Ybardolaza, may I have permission to search the area he was working to see if he made a second hybrid to worry about?"

"Permission granted."

* * *

><p>"Wow this place is a mess."<p>

Katie walked into the lab Whiting had reserved in the Living Tests section of Genetics. It appeared that Edward the Hak had down some serious damage when he broke loose. Although, Katie had to admit it wasn't as bad as some of the infected professors and Masters or Craft looked.

The places on their bodies where they had been bitten were oozing fluorescent blue pus. Their skin was turning green (except for some of the green aliens which were turning purple) and each one was hallucinating. Okay, so listening to a pack of super geniuses go crazy was extremely entertaining, particularly when several had asked her to burn their submissions to the Nobel Prize judges so that they could go into cattle farming. And then there was the one who insisted they were the reincarnation of Isaac Newton. Odd part of that was they were female, and had two heads.

Katie mentally berated herself. This was no time to go through memory files of scientists even crazier than the Doctor. She was down here to see if Whiting had been thick enough—smart enough—to create a second Hak hybrid, and if so she had to find it. If it existed, she had to find all the files on it, find it, and get a blood sample.

"Well, compared to what the Doctor has to do, this is easy. So glad he gets to organize the cure creation." Katie furrowed her brow. "So why do I still feel like I got the short end of the stick?"

Slowly picking her way around the overturned tables, shattered beakers, and broken pads, she worked her way over to a slightly less destroyed corner of the lab. She saw a pad that was mostly intact and picked it up. It was all on Edward, with a lot of genetic stuff that Katie didn't understand. However, one note did catch her eye.

_Exponential Growth Experiment (Hak) Subject Four, Day 24_

_ Bob showing more signs of aggression. Skull of each reproduction looking more and more Hak-like. H. still running strong after fifth fertilization…_

There was more, all on the health of "Bob" (Edward!). Katie ignored it, too worried about what the pad had already told her.

Edward wasn't the first. Whiting must have created a female Hak, and was speeding up the maturation process of each of her male children. And another was on the way.

A pregnant female was outside searching for her mate, likely carrying the new disease with her.

"I need to look up more swear words."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

"Fascinating. Look at the way this disease has changed, right down to the shape. It's beautiful. The way this thing has grown is amazing! And look at how fast it's growing."

"Doctor, with all due respect, now is not the time to be admiring the thing that could potentially kill us all."

The Doctor stood up from the microscope, suppressing a sigh. Scientists could be so dull, ignoring the glory of life at the moments it was the most brilliant. The fact it was dangerous only heightened the beauty. No wonder he traveled with Kathryn instead.

"Well, have any of your potential cures worked?"

The man shook his head. "No. We have a few promising ones, but as of now nothing's working. We've lost a few people as well."

Death. It followed him everywhere.

The door to the Medical Sciences Laboratory burst open, and his companion came dashing in. She stumbled on a box, caught herself, and slid in next to his feet like a baseball player. The intensity on her face was clear as she hopped up.

"Does this place have a security camera?'

The Doctor pointed up towards the corner of the room. A small half-sphere that was the camera was attached to the ceiling, providing itself with a three-hundred sixty degree view.

"Good. One of you brains pull out some wire and a laptop. And I'll need a ladder."

The room full of scientists looked between the man they all practically worshiped and the girl they considered to be a sly trickster. Katie raised an eyebrow.

"I can always let all of you die when the second Hak comes through the door."

"There's a second one?"

Katie turned to the Doctor. "Oh, yes. A pregnant female, to be precise. I need to break into the security system so I can find it. To do that, I need a ladder, a few cables, and a laptop." She turned back to the other 'doctors' in the room. "Any of you care to stop me?"

Ten minutes later, Katie was going through live feed of different sections all over the main Atlantis Campus. Unfortunately, the campus was huge, with dozens of buildings, hundreds of corridors, and thousands of rooms.

"Doctor, if you had to guess what the body temperature of the male Hak was, what would you say?"

The Doctor paused in what he was doing to think. "Well, adding in the fact that only a portion of it would make it through its fur, and the general size versus the energy output….possibly 37.7 degrees Calvin?"

"Fahrenheit Doctor."

"100 degrees."

"Adding in a pregnancy?"

"Add about five degrees, give or take point six."

"Thank you."

Katie allowed herself to zone out, giving her subconscious, and her computer skills, free reign. She felt as though she was looking over someone else's shoulder as dozens of lines of code flashed before her eyes, knowing that when they stopped, she would have re-programed the security cameras to search for moving heat signatures between 99 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

Finally, the lines stopped. A large, red blur moved across the screen, snapping and biting at everything it passed by.

"Found it."

The Doctor was by her side in an instant. "How did you do that?"

She leaned back to give him a look.

"Sorry. I still forget. She seems to be around the dorms. That's not good."

"You want me to go after her?"

"No, you we can't do anything yet. We have no idea how to treat this."

"Still haven't found the magic elixir, huh?"

The Doctor shook his head, sitting down with a tired air. "No. We've been going through everything, and speeding up the growth of the virus in the petri dishes so we can get faster results, adding in every antibiotic we can think of, but it eats everything. At best, we can slow it down slightly, but it's growing too fast. We can't stop it."

Katie made a sound with her mouth. "I guess chicken soup and mint tea wouldn't help in this instance then."

The Doctor froze, and Katie could see the wheels spinning. He hit his forehead, exclaiming "Of course! Oh, Kathryn you're brilliant!"

He jumped up, calling out as he did. "Henderson! What do we have in the Botanical Department that works well with fevers and colds?"

Twenty minutes later, the Doctor was making tea out of every herbal leaf the Atlantis Greenhouses had. Thirty minutes later, he was watching proudly as several of the teas began to stop the virus in the dishes. He bent down to examine them at eye level, that stupid grin plastered on his face. Katie crouched down to look at him across the table. He looked at her, and his smile grew impossibly wider.

"I don't know what I'd do without you."

Katie smiled back stupidly, a warm feeling spreading though her.

"Now we just have to find a way to give it to everyone," she said optimistically.

The Doctor's smile shrank. "No, first we have to stop the female Hak."

"Rachel."

He gave her a look. "Fine. Rachel. She's still spreading the infection. We have to stop it at its source."

"How do you propose we do it?"

"Where is she?"

"Dashing about the campus. Outside. Where catching her would be close to impossible. I suppose we could always shoot her."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow disapprovingly. "And you still try to say you aren't human."

"I meant with a tranquilizer. Yeesh."

"Would they have those?"

One of the scientists stepped forward. "There should be plenty in the LIVING TESTS lab."

"Well, that's out."

Katie stood up straight, pointing at the scientist thoughtfully. "Maybe not… Doctor, you wouldn't happen to know about a good knock-out smoke, would you?"

"I might."

Katie smiled. "Brilliant. Oh, and I need a basic overview of preferred Hak foods."

"What?"

* * *

><p>An hour later, most of the injured were on the road to recovery. Those that had somehow managed to avoid infection were using torches and air horns to drive the Hak towards the central square of Atlantis. There, Katie was standing, holding a lighter in one hand, her dagger in the other, garlic stuffed up her nose, and a ring of oil soaked twigs and leaves surrounding her. Stuffed into her pockets and rubbed into her skin was animal fat and blood from the male Hak-hybrid, the scents of both permeating the air.<p>

"I am so taking a bath when this is over. Do we have a sauna?"

"Somewhere," the Doctor answered from nearby. He was free of any extra scent, a large hypodermic needle full of the cure in one hand. "Are you sure about this?"

"No."

"Good. Then I know it'll work."

Katie flashed him a grin. The sound of a Hak roaring forced her to refocus.

Rachel differed from Edward in only a few aspects. Her fur was pitch black, and she was larger, but her head looked far closer to the walrus/ape cross that the skull had resembled.

"Doctor, if I swear at any point during this encounter, in any language, I trust that you shall immediately erase the phrase from your memory."

Rachel's pursuers stopped their chase at the same time that Rachel caught the smell of fat and the blood of her most recent mate wafting off Katie. She roared again, froth flying from her mouth.

"Oh blank is that critter mad."

The Hak snorted loudly and charged. Katie watched carefully, knowing she had to time it just right. When Rachel was 100 yards away, she flicked the lighter. Nothing happened.

"What the—"

Several hundred pounds of angry beast hit Katie like—well, like several hundred pounds of angry beast. She was immediately thrown to the ground, her dagger flung from her hand. She cried out involuntarily as Rachel bit her shoulder. Growling back at the creature, Katie forced Rachel's head up to expose her neck, then hit her hard on the throat. Rachel rolled away whimpering slightly.

"Doctor, you'd better find a working lighter fast!"

The high pitched whine of the sonic met her ears as the oil soaked herbs burst into flames, creating a thick smoke. Katie closed her eyes, partially to block out the smoke and partially to see. Instantly the Hak lit up, its outline clear. She could even see the outline of her child, small, red, its miniature heart pulsing. The sight made her freeze in awe.

Rachel swayed, the smoke filling her lungs. Giving one last weak roar, her knees buckled and she fell to the ground.

"Fans on!"

The smoke cleared away at Katie's bidding. The Doctor immediately came running in and administered the drug, stopping it firmly at the source.

Katie looked down at the sleeping Hak. Rachel was completely unharmed, as was the child said she carried. The mutated rabies disease could now be treated, and she was no longer a threat. Katie looked up at the students standing about, all of them stunned at the way such a comparatively stupid child could figure out something they hadn't, and with the Doctor's back up. Katie lifted her head smugly. A southern accent replaced her usual Californian.

"That's right. All ya'll saw it. I did finish it. Because that—is how companions roll. We ain't got no fancy degree, but we take it like it is." She jerked her chin up. "Swallow that pill."

Katie turned on her heal and swaggered off, knowing full well she was acting extremely immature, but also not caring.

The Doctor watched her turn the corner, then decided to just go after her. Katie was odd, but this was odd ever for her. First she wanted to change her very DNA, and then she foolishly took on a Hak—no two Hak's—by herself, and now she was rubbing victory in someone else's face. So the second thing wasn't so odd, but most of the time she accepted help. Something was definitely up.

He went after her and caught sight of her. She was obviously doing her best not to break into a victory dance.

"Kathryn, what was that?"

She spun around to face him. Her usual accent was back as she said, "What was what?"

"You've been acting…odd. More so than you normally do."

"Clarify."

"Well, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were going through a phase of human adolescence that includes insecurity."

Katie was silent, which gave the Doctor his answer.

"Were you worried that I would leave you behind in favor of one of the students?"

"In a word…affirmative."

The Doctor blinked in disbelief. "You honestly thought I would do that?"

"Yes."

The Doctor peered at her. "You don't put much stock in friendships do you." It was a statement rather than a question.

Katie was silent for a moment. Then: "No. My last friendship didn't end so very well, at least not on his end. And I don't—I didn't—get much chance to visit with the others. They moved."

The Doctor stepped closer to Katie, whose demeanor now resembled a popped balloon. Katie put out a brilliant front, always appearing very secure in whatever she was doing. The Doctor was finally starting to realize just how well practiced that front was.

"Kathryn, when I asked you to travel with me, did I put conditions on the invitation?"

"No."

"There you are then."

Katie bit her bottom lip, thinking before asking her next question. "Wouldn't you rather have someone a little less…American to travel with?"

"Where's the fun in that?"

"Less death is usually fun for most people."

"Oh, I've been tempting fate for years. I've died nine times myself."

"Huh?"

"That's what regeneration is for a Time Lord. We keep the same memories, but a new face, a new character, a new person, is born in my place. I become someone completely different."

The Doctor could tell, even as he said it, that Katie was still distracted.

"Kathryn, I'm not going to leave you stranded."

"Why not?"

The question took the Doctor off-guard. No one had ever asked why they traveled with him, just if they could.

Katie didn't make the Doctor answer.

"Why keep me at all? So what if I figured out how not to get shot the first time we met? You could have done it too. You're the most amazing man, person, the most amazing _anything_ that ever lived. Your default is compassion. I go straight to the "kill" setting. You could have anyone travel with you, from Abraham Lincoln to the Albert Einstein to Shakespeare. Why pick some crazy energy sucking killing machine? Why don't you get rid of me!"

The Doctor was lost for a givable answer. He had an answer; he knew why he found the most ordinary of the ordinary to travel with, the people who were so very human. He knew why he couldn't let Kathryn leave. But what to actually say to her?

Then he realized he needn't say anything.

Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out a long string. On its end dangled a very plain key. He held it out to Katie.

"You've earned it."

Katie stared with wide eyes at the TARDIS key the Doctor held out to her. She took it almost reverently. She stared at it in her hand before looking back at him, questions still filling her face. All those questions bore the same under current: insecurity. If the Doctor had to guess what the insecurity was based on, he would have said betrayal. The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at her with one of his set faces.

"Kathryn, I don't know if you've heard this before and no longer believe it, but I'm not going to leave you. If you go missing, I will find you. You're my friend, and I always come back for friends."

* * *

><p>Katie closed TARDIS's doors behind her and leaned against them, sighing with relief. The Doctor stood at the console, grinning insolently. Katie glared at him, emphasizing her words with a pointed finger.<p>

"Wipe that smirk of your mug and get us _out_."

"Why? I thought you wanted to be noticed."

"Oh, shut up. They wanted to make a bust of me. A _bust_. As if! I like having my head attached to the rest of me, thank you very much. I had to cover myself in cloth to avoid draining people. From now on, you can stay the popular one. And don't ever bring me back here."

The Doctor's smile shrank just a bit, though it stayed firmly on his face. "So how's Rachel doing?"

Katie finally smiled. "Oh, she's doing great. The smoke had no ill effects on her or Roger, so the race can keep going. How about that! We finally did some good in this old universe."  
>The Doctor seemed to laugh at that statement. "Indeed we did. Now, where would you like to go next?"<p>

Katie's face split into a grin as she dashed over to the console. "Somewhere guaranteed to be dull, lengthy, and educational. And on a Sunday."

"Why so boring?" he asked.

"Because whenever something seems like it's going to be dull, it never is."

The Doctor grinned. "Right then!" He started running about, pulling out stops, spinning things, and flipping levers. "Let's go somewhere boring."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not welcome*<p>

Ha! Got it done despite the obsticles. My next story is in the works, the title being "Time Taken for Granite." Let me know if you enjoyed this last story!


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